Local black leaders say Zimmerman verdict unfair

Acquittal spotlights negative racial biases, they say

Keta Taylor, center, of Birmingham joins about 500 other demonstrators during a rally and march in support of Trayvon Martin in Birmingham on Monday. The crowd marched along downtown streets singing civil rights hymns and chanting “No justice, no peace,” as police looked on.

The Associated Press

By Jamon SmithStaff Writer

Published: Tuesday, July 16, 2013 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Monday, July 15, 2013 at 11:37 p.m.

TUSCALOOSA | Black community leaders in Tuscaloosa on Monday expressed sharp disappointment in the verdict reached in the trial of George Zimmerman.

Keta Taylor, center, of Birmingham joins about 500 other demonstrators during a rally and march in support of Trayvon Martin in Birmingham on Monday. The crowd marched along downtown streets singing civil rights hymns and chanting “No justice, no peace,” as police looked on.

The Associated Press

On Saturday, a jury found Zimmerman not guilty of second-degree murder in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager, in Sanford, Fla.

“I think this is a disgrace to the justice system,” said the Rev. Willie Clyde Jones, a community activist and pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church.

The Rev. Schmitt Moore, state president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, said the verdict put a chill in his spine.

“I don’t have all the facts, but what I sensed, what I heard, to me it sounds like an individual got away with murder,” Moore said. “I’m on the outside looking in, but it was a chilling reminder of the way things have been in the past that a black man’s life isn’t worth much in some places and with some people.”

Jerry Carter, president of the Tuscaloosa chapter of the NAACP, said he believes the prosecution failed.

“I just thought the trial was disgraceful,” Carter said. “When we heard the 911 tapes and the dispatcher clearly told him to back off and he didn’t, Trayvon wouldn’t be dead. If Trayvon was white and George Zimmerman was black I think without a doubt the results would have been different. First of all, he would have been arrested immediately on the spot.

“This should be the wake-up call of all wake-up calls of the value that some people place on black life,” Carter said. “This should be the textbook example of how small of a value some people put on a black life.

“We still have a long, long way to go as far as race relations in this country go. Not guilty?”

Kerri Ash, a 33-year-old Tuscaloosa resident who actively participates in community service, said the verdict shows the need for people to take part in the Tuscaloosa Police Department’s Equalizer class, which teaches self-defense and self-defense law to women ages 18 and older.

“You learn how to minimize your threats, how to mentally be prepared for it, how to block and strike, grapple,” she said. “The problem with this course, in my opinion, is that it’s only offered to adult women. Clearly, our young men and boys need an Equalizer course, as we saw with this case.”

Moore said he’s concerned about the Zimmerman verdict causing division among races. He said people have to stand together if they want to make things better.

“For those of us who love our community, we cannot let this divide us, because we are at our best when we are one people,” Moore said. “We have to find a way to get through this. Unity is our best chance to realize the kind of country that God wants us to have.

“We are a very diverse, wide-spread country,” he said. “The mere fact that Barack Obama is president says that we have come a long way. Absolutely, we’ve come a long way. Obama didn’t become president just because people of color voted for him. But when you look at all the Obama haters and the Supreme Court’s decision and all that’s going on in our city, we still have a very long way to go. We have a lot of good, and unfortunately we have a lot of negative.”

Reverse, an organization comprised of local Christian youth ministers, plans to hold a community prayer at 7 a.m. Wednesday at Government Plaza on Sixth Street in downtown Tuscaloosa.

Lionel Grant II, one of the event’s organizer’s, said the prayer service is open to all.

“We’re going to honor Trayvon Martin and others who lost their lives to violence,” Grant said. “It’s July 17 at 7 a.m. The 7 represents the perfection of God, and we’re going to pray for 17 minutes. There’s no formal program. We’re just gathering everyone together to just pray. Right now we feel like this is the best thing we can do.”

Reach Jamon Smith at jamon.smith@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0204.

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